In 2010, Forbes took an exclusive tour of the Stone Mansion in Alpine, N.J. Listed at the time for $68 million, it was one of America's most expensive homes for sale. Two years and several price changes later, the unsold home is back on the sale block with a new marketing team and a $56 million price tag.
"We are confident that the market for significant properties such as 18 Frick Drive is extremely active," says Oren Alexander, the new exclusive marketer of the property and a co-founder of the Alexander Group at Prudential Douglas Elliman.
Alexander is employing a new marketing angle for the opulent spec home. The Stone Mansion property itself is offered with six acres for $56 million -- an asking price that has accompanied the property since 2011. But for an additional $12 million, the adjacent six acre parcel can be included. For an additional $39 million, another 20-acre parcel with the 10,000-square foot historic mansion can be included as well.
In other words, a wealthy buyer can now have two mansions spread across 32 acres for a staggering $107 million.
Publicity play? Perhaps. But it joins a growing list of massive multi-million dollar estates scattered across the U.S. being offered this way. In Aspen, for example, the 70-acre, multi-home Jigsaw Ranch can purchased in total for $47.5 million or separately in two parcels priced at $19.95 million and $33.5 million. In Montana, the Orfalea family's Grizzly Creek Ranch is available for $25 million; a second parcel cane be had for an additional $3 million. In New York City's building Superior Ink, the entire 14th floor, comprised of three condo units, is listed altogether for $33.95 million or as separate units.
The Stone Mansion's owner is Richard Kurtz, chief executive of Kamson Corp., an Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based real estate investment company. Kurtz purchased Alpine's 60-acre Henry Clay Frick estate in 2006 for $58 million. As the housing bubble continued to inflate, he subdivided, developed and in some cases sold, pieces of the historic estate.
The Stone Mansion parcel was originally intended for personal use. As the floor plan and list of outrageous amenities ballooned during construction, however, Kurtz and his wife decided it outsized their needs. “It’s just too big for us. We would have to use cell phones just to find each other!” he jokingly admitted to FORBES in 2010. It came to market.
The newly finished manse spans 30,000-square feet that includes 12 bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, a ballroom with wet bar and coat check closet, and a subterranean basketball court equipped with scoreboards and locker rooms. There's even a sports lounge with a bar capable of serving beer on tap. The four-level home took more than three years to build with a 60-person crew.
Contributing to the lofty price tags is locale. Located eight miles outside of Manhattan, the tony town regularly lands in the top five on FORBES' annual list of America's Most Expensive ZIP Codes. It's not unusual for GPS systems to scramble in the 07620 postal code, where address markers can be hard to come by. The close proximity to New York City and the privacy have made it a sought after destination for high profile celebrities including Sean "Diddy" Combs, Stevie Wonder, and Britney Spears.
Though two years old, little has changed inside the Stone Mansion itself since FORBES first visited with a camera crew -- except, of course, the price tag. The rooms remain unfurnished and the driveway remains hard to find without printed directions.
Check out the home in the video below. And stay tuned for the 2012 list of America's Most Expensive ZIP Codes, launching mid-October.
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